Galdaart Fel
Galdaart Fel is, whether he likes it or not, one of the most infamous smugglers in the known galaxy. He has pulled off seemingly impossible jobs from the Core to the Outer Rim for over a decade (an eternity in his business.) For much of that time, Fel has been a loner, a reticent privateer who never used four syllables, when three would do. Nobody who hired Galdaart could say much about him, except that he got the job done. Recently (within the last year) something changed. He took on a crew, and turned his back on the very rules that had kept him alive -- and alone -- for ten years. Every moment since that decision has been filled with uncertainty. He has exposed himself and his ship again and again to the kind of peril that only happens when you start to care about others. Galdaart Fel hasn't dared to do that since his time in the Imperial Fighter Corps. Galdaart is what acquaintences would call "A no good, lying poodoo... but a cunning warrior, a highly skilled pilot, and a loyal friend." Galdaart has the look of a man who has spent too much time off-world: thin, wiry, and a little malnourished, he walks with the gait of one who is both hunter and hunted. Fel never feels at home when he's 'on the ground.' He is often edgy and loud-mouthed, which can (and does) get him into trouble. His eyes perpetually squint, as if he is looking 1000 yards away for the next target. (he is.) Galdaart was until recently a solitary adventurer. He is slow to trust, and often prideful without cause. He lives by his own code of smugglers' ethics, and rarely stays in one place for long. He would say "live free or die," if he were prone to speeches (he is not.) Galdaart lives for the thrum of engines in his ears, and open space through the cockpit canopy. Freedom is highly prized and protected. Galdaart would tell you that he "doesn't ever remember calling any world home," and that would be mostly true. Since the age of twelve, he has stowed away, crewed, or captained a vast number of ships, all of which were more home to him than the Taris underworld, where he was born into squalor and poverty, ever was. Over time, the idea of 'home' is changing to Galdaart. For many years, during his solitary adventuring, home was his ancient YT-1760 light freighter, the 'Dar'Yaim.' Now, were he asked what 'home' was, he'd likely say it was anywhere he and his crew happened to be. 'Physical Features' Galdaart's biggest defining physical feature are two scars: one, the result of a knife-fight gone wrong on Dantooine, which travels across both cheeks from the corners of his mouth, perpetually pulling his mouth into a kind of sneer / smile, and the other a massive burn scar covering most of his left arm and his back, the result of a crash many years ago (he doesn't discuss it.) Fel has several tattoos, acquired all over the galaxy. The oldest of them all is his Imperial service bar-code on his right forearm. Galdaart suffers from an incurable inner-ear condition which deep-core spacers refer to as 'land-sickness.' The phenomena is attributable to too many hours spent off-world in zero-grav conditions, and is most common amongst long-haul, human cargo crews. The effects are only noticeable in-atmo, and consist mainly of a telltale 'off-kilter' gait, like the subject is slightly dizzy. Nausea is uncommon, but possible. Most recently, while visiting Ord Mantell, Galdaart lost his left eye during a firefight with the Nagai assassin Tir Kaarn. Fel received a cybernetic replacement on Honoghr, and bears four distinctive inch-long scars around the eye, like marks on a clock of three, six, nine and twelve o'clock. 'Biography: Early Life / Imperial Service' Little is known about Galdaart Fel's early life: it is known that he was born in the slums of the Tarisian underworld to a young woman named Irella. Fel never knew his father, and never knew his lineage. Irella left him to fend for himself at the age of seven. Her whereabouts are unknown. Though he is notoriously close-lipped about his past, it is known that the young Galdaart fell in with a teenage swoop gang in order to scratch out an existence in the underworld, where he became a feared pilot and capable (if lazy) mechanic. What is known beyond any doubt is the date Galdaart entered Imperial military service: the 362nd day of the year 9 ABY. Galdaart (now going by the name Fel) was fifteen years old. His piloting skills were put to use in service of the Galactic Empire, as the young Fel soon found himself a pilot in a squadron of outdated LAAT/i dropships, relics left over from the Clone Wars. His was one of only five squadrons of the type left in Galactic Military service. However, over the course of the next year, the LAAT/i was proven a competent battle platform once more and reintroduced, largely due to the skill of Fel's squadron. the 11th Tactical Support Wing, which came to be known under the name 'The Bug Stompers' which was a reference to the nose art of Fel's own LAAT/i. Galdaart and his Bug Stompers served with distinction throughout the Thrawn Campaign, and up to the Attack on the Borderland Regions in late 10 ABY, earning the Imperial Medallion of Service during the Fourth battle of Coruscant. The reasons and conditions are unknown, but sometime during the attack on the Borderlands Region, Galdaart was relieved of his command and demoted for insubordination and gross misconduct. His Imperial military file is incomplete, and does not delve further into detail about the cause of his punishment. This would be the first of several charges against Fel during his time with the Imperial Navy. Sent to a TIE squadron as cannon fodder, Fel instead thrived, quickly gaining a tally of kills to rival the very best in the service. Unable to ignore his skill, his superiors again transferred the young pilot, this time to the renowned 181st TIE Interceptor squadron, where Fel would see out his days with the Empire. Although obviously gifted behind the yoke of his TIE/IN, it became quickly apparent to his superiors that as the young officer was allowed access to more and more of the faulty Imperial rhetoric and the thinly veiled greed that motivated their actions, Galdaart had less and less patience for the bureaucracy, ideology and bold-faced lies that sent the good men and women of his squadron to their deaths, day after day. He became distrustful, withdrawn and openly critical of the doctrines that bound him to servitude. The final two years of Galdaart's service to the Imperial Remnant were marred by disciplinary actions, demotions, fearsome injuries, and much loss of life within what remained of the 181st, as adversaries gained the upper hand through newer technology, and attrition. Forever on the move, with less than a day between sorties, Fel's 181st simply had no time to properly train and integrate new pilots and the Imperial Remnant, stretched to the limits of its resources, had neither the time nor the Credits to produce a new Space-Superiority fighter. Ultimately, Galdaart Fel fought the final year of his imperial Service with a squadron of pilots who, as more experienced members were killed in action, were replaced by well-meaning and eager, but 'green' newcomers, and an aging fleet of TIE/IN fighters, outclassed in every way by a new breed of vessels. It was a battle even the best pilot couldn't win. 'Attack on Dantooine' The Attack on Dantooine (which has come to be known as the Dantooine Massacre) would be the last mission Galdaart Fel ever flew for the Imperial Remnant. The ill-planned attack, under orders from General Daala, was supposedly against a New Republic base. Galdaart's own intelligence sources from within the 181st gave conflicting evidence, and when he presented the discrepancy and requested further reconnaissance, he was silenced. The 181st had orders to protect two squadrons of TIE/sa bombers on their inbound assault, and to strafe targets of interest on their outbound sweep. Early into the sortie, it became apparent that the mission intel was grossly inaccurate. The targets were not New Republic soldiers, they were refugees. Civilians. According to the official Imperial incident report following the mission, Lieutenant (formerly Cmdr.) Fel's squadron successfully eliminated a rudimentary field hospital (57 dead,) three "unfriendly barracks" buildings (actually refugee shelters -- 140 dead) and numerous "enemy fighters" (ancient bulk transports and light freighters, none of which were airborne or acting in a hostile manner -- 23 dead.) Lieutenant Fel then ordered his squadron to stand down and was subsequently fired upon by his number six, who was killed in the ensuing dogfight by his superior. Upon return to the hangar, Lt. Fel was arrested for Treason and subsequently charged with the murder of his wingman, gross incompetence and insubordination, and was dishonorably discharged. He was sent to the penal colony on Kessel, but the prisoner escaped en route. 'Early Smuggling Career' Fel was aided in his escape from the prison barge by an old, outdated astromech droid called R2P47, who the pilot quickly christened 'Wrench.' Galdaart's first ship was an ancient and ill-tempered Subpro JS-77B which the prison barge had been using as a ferry to offworld penal colonies. This ship was never named by Galdaart, though it remained in Imperial livery, and carried the designation PC-155 on its flanks for the two years that Galdaart and Wrench lived and worked aboard her. Smuggling did not come easily to Galdaart at first, and he tried his hand at Bounty Hunting, and was a frontier Justice Marshall on a backwater moon for a time before falling into Smuggling, which he realized over time suited his nature, and provided him the opportunity to keep moving, and stay off the radar of the authorities. The first few years of any smugglers' life are not easy, and Galdaart barely existed for two years, just scraping by. There was never food in the galley or fuel in the tank, but somehow Galdaart and Wrench survived. In the process, Galdaart gained several important contacts, saw the universe, developed the code by which he lives and further refined his view of the galaxy and those who play powerful roles in it. At the same time, he took low-key jobs, flying off the radar, avoiding any Imperial business or the watchful eye of the authorities. During this phase of Fel's life, he spent weeks on end communicating with nobody, eking out an existence that bordered on feral. Astonishingly, eight years would pass with the bare minimum of sentient interaction, until a chance encounter with the notorious criminal Dasson Rend on Osarian... 'A Crew for the Loner' It was while stalking and apprehending the murderous psychopath, Dasson Rend, on Osarian that Galdaart met Karana Malora, the first of his newfound crew. He was drawn to her from the beginning, and though he very nearly didn't offer up passage aboard his ship, the Dar'yaim, he was swayed to listen to his heart rather than his stubborn code by his ever-loyal partner, Wrench. Though his wounded psyche makes it terribly difficult for him to say, or show it, Malora is the love of Galdaart's life. Fel suspects this is the case yet timing, circumstance, and his own code of ethics have kept them apart. He would gladly give his own life for hers. Karana brings to Galdaart's life (and to the crew) an appeal that would otherwise be totally absent. She is at once aloof, dangerous, beautiful, headstrong and sarcastic. Combined, and in keeping with the sort of people Fel interacts with, these make a deadly, irresistable mix.